State officials say they'll order all ash trees infected with a destructive beetle to be cut down on private or public land.

The advancing beetle has been found near Wisconsin's southern border and in the U.P.

The game plan by state agricultural experts is to cut down all ash trees within a half-mile of an infestation, then grind them into chips and burn them.

An estimated one-third of all street trees in Wisconsin communities are ash varieties.

In the past four years, the emerald ash borer has killed an estimated 12 million to 15 million ash trees in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

Ag department disease specialist Melody Walker says there's a good chance that the beetle has already made its way into Wisconsin, but we just haven't discovered it yet.